Hot Topics:

Chelmsford man sentenced in fraud

By Alana Melanson, amelanson@lowellsun.com

Updated:
09/28/2016 09:15:08 AM EDT

BOSTON -- A 51-year-old Chelmsford man will serve 30 months in prison and pay a $1 million fine in connection with a scheme of recruiting service-disabled veterans as figurehead owners of a construction company to receive specialized government contracts.

David Gorski was also sentenced to one year of supervised release by U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor Tuesday, according to a press release from U.S. District Attorney Carmen Ortiz.

In June, following a 12-day trial, a jury found Gorski guilty of conspiring to defraud the United States by impairing the lawful government function of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the General Services Administration, the Army and the Navy in the implementation of the Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) Program. Gorski was also convicted of four counts of wire fraud.

"Taking advantage of set-aside programs intended to support the economic welfare and stability of veterans is appalling," Ortiz said in a statement. "Through his scheme, Mr. Gorski undercut the efforts of hard-working veterans to compete for valuable government contracts and, as such, defrauded federal agencies dedicated to serving veterans of our armed services."

From 2006 to November 2010, Gorski's Legion Construction, Inc. acquired more than $113 million in federal contracts thanks to his false representations to federal contracting officers that the company was owned and operated by service-disabled veterans.

Advertisement

In 2006, Gorski established the company and recruited a disabled Korean War veteran to act as the straw owner in order to obtain federal construction contracts under the SDVOSB Program. The program provides federal contracting assistance to service-disabled veteran small business owners by creating set-aside and sole-source acquisitions for these businesses.

When the first veteran's health deteriorated, Gorski added another disabled veteran, Peter Ianuzzi, to serve as the figurehead owner of Legion.

In March 2010, another service-disabled veteran-owned small business registered a bid protest against Legion, alleging the company should not have been awarded a contract with the VA at its White River Junction, Vt., medical center. The other company challenged Legion's SDVOSB status and alleged Gorski was running Legion, not the veterans.

Gorski hired a large Boston law firm and filed an opposition to the protest that included backdated documents with false and misleading information. After the Small Business Administration denied the bid protest, Gorski hatched a plan to siphon money from Legion that would not appear as compensation larger than the pay nominal owner Ianuzzi received, in violation of federal regulations.

Under Gorski's plan, Ianuzzi would "gift" him $900,000 and establish private bank accounts where $2.5 million would be deposited for Gorski's benefit. A federal grant jury issued subpoenas to Legion and several witnesses before the bank accounts were opened.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William F. Bloomer of Ortiz's Public Corruption Unit prosecuted the case.

Federal government and military officials commended the outcome and said they will continue their work to hold accountable those who fraudulently obtain funds and contracting opportunities meant for deserving veterans.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sun. So keep it civil.